Whole and happy for one moment, before the miserable future I had ahead of me without him.
ADAM
Have you ever stared into a washing machine, watching the swirl of the clothes, and felt like you wished you could be inside?
Weird wish, I knew, but still, the chance to get clean, to have all your stains washed away in a blur?
I felt like that.
Not because I was stained, but because I wanted to erase the past. I wanted, so fucking badly, to start the day over again. But, even if I did, it wouldn’t change things.
I didn’t realize it, but this had been brewing since the day Thea and I had met.
Fate had a way of kicking you in the balls, but whatever I could have anticipated, I never would have anticipated this.
The morning had started out great. Walking into Rosemore with Thea at my side? My arm around her shoulders? The link pretty much humming between us as she laughed up at me, her heart in her eyes, and I laughed back at her, well aware that, for the first time ever, I was happy in this place.
She did that to me. She made me happy.
Of course, I should have known the second Cain was involved it would start to go wrong.
Thea was so nervous about practice that she had all kinds of plans laid down to save herself from the ignominy of being embarrassed by the girls in the locker room. She had padlocks of her own, and two of everything, some of which I was supposed to keep so I could give her new gear if it was stolen from her—the level of planning told me exactly how many times she’d been a new girl. Exactly how often she’d been bullied, and though I wanted to kill someone for it, my hands were tied. All I could do was reassure her that everything was okay.
I hated that my own fucking brother had made a liar out of me.
Whatever I’d expected, however, it wasn’t striding into the pool with a pair of too fucking small Speedos up my asscrack because my dick of a brother had sabotaged my locker. I’d wasted a good ten minutes trying to find some shorts that fit, and irony of ironies, had to scour the lost and found Thea so feared for some shorts.
Great.
Borrowed swimwear.
Wasn’t sure it could be grosser, but hell, Thea needed me, so I stopped dicking around and went out to the pool.
The outright chaos that fell when I walked into the arena, though, was something that had me rearing back, taking a second to figure out what the fuck was going down. But when I looked, when I finally realized what was happening—I still couldn’t piece it together.
Cain was on the ground, his face eating cement, with one of the security guards on him. The guy had Cain’s hands in his grip, and his knee was on my twin’s back. Maria, Cain’s girlfriend, was sobbing, her shoulders hunched as she sat on one of the stools lining the wall. Coach Kyle was standing next to her, his hand on her arm, not in a conciliatory way or an affectionate one, but in a ‘you’re not going anywhere’ way.
I blinked at him, at the guard, and then I realized the small crowd of people at the foot of the pool were shielding something else. With a quick glance at the kids, I saw Thea wasn’t there, and I rushed over, the fucking Speedos damn near castrating me as I moved as swiftly as I could in them.
When I breached the human wall, I wanted to die.
Thea was on the ground, the cement beneath her was drenched, her hair swirled like snakes in the water puddled beneath her, and her face was bright pink with strange white-blue striations around her mouth—like she’d been deprived of oxygen or something.
I gulped at the sight, blinking like I could clear my vision of the image, but when I rubbed my eyes, she was still there. Still unconscious.
And my nightmare began.
I dropped to my knees, but a hand grabbed me and jerked me upright and back. “Let the Coach do his work.”
Blindly, I stared at the teacher, not even recognizing it was the vice principal, and I hurled at him, “Where are the EMTs? You need to get an ambulance!”
“Everything’s in hand,” he stated.
“Everything’s in hand?” I shouted back at him.
I wanted to be at her side, wanted to hold her and make her okay, but from the looks of the scene around me, I knew something was going on.
Something I didn’t like.
I jerked back from my teacher’s grip, and even though it killed me to walk away, I had no choice. Coach Ogden would carry on with his first aid, but it wasn’t what Thea needed.
The VP yelled something at me, but I ignored him, shoving through the crowd to get back to the locker room. Urgency rode me, but I knew, somehow, what was about to go down.
Thea wouldn’t die.
I knew that.
The school couldn’t afford that.
In a minute, I felt sure that another of the first aiders would make an appearance, but… it wasn’t enough.
As I started to run, I passed Cain and my gaze caught his. It was awkward for him, his head twisted to the side the way it was, but the second he knew I was looking at him, he smiled.
Fucking smiled.
The sick fuck.
My brain felt like it was moving too fast, but also, like I’d never seen with more clarity in all my life.
It didn’t take a genius to figure it out.
Cain had hurt Thea. Maria had too.
No surprises there. Maria was just as much of a twisted bitch as Cain was a twisted fucker. They made a lovely goddamn couple, two sick, bored fucks who were lost in their own apathy…
They’d hurt her. And fuck if I didn’t want to hurt them in turn.
And though they were being restrained, things were swept away in an academy like this one.
Even though my brain whirled at super speed, my body felt like I was moving in slow motion. When I found myself peering into my locker, I blinked. But I grabbed my phone.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Liam snarled, his hand on my wrist, his other trying to grab my cell.
It was the first time I realized I’d been followed, and I shoved him off me with my spare hand, and when he went for my phone again, I decked him. One fist straight to his nose. Blood instantly spurted, spotting my chest with it, and as he howled, I ground out, “Back the fuck off.”
He grabbed his nose like it had fallen off, but he didn’t whine past the initial blow. He tipped his head back and rattled, “Who are you calling?”
“The EMTs. The cops.”
“You can’t do that! They’ll go to jail!”
My vision cleared once more, everything speeding up so that the world was in sync again.
“Exactly.” Cain belonged in a jail cell, and I was going to make sure that happened.
When the cops turned up, the EMTs too, I watched as my brother and his girlfriend were hauled off to the station, and I was at Thea’s side when she was loaded onto a gurney and guided into an ambulance.
All around me, there were whispers.
But I didn’t care.
I could only focus on her. Could only see Thea. She was breathing and her color was better, but, according to Coach Ogden, who’d managed to resuscitate her, she’d only gained consciousness for around twenty seconds before passing out once more.
My heart was in my throat as I held her hand. My entire being ached to be in that bed, to take her place, for her not to have suffered at Cain’s hand.
I should have known.
I never should have brought her here.
Ducking my head, I waited. The journey to the hospital was swift, and I found myself in a waiting room surrounded by clusters of humanity who were bitching at the receptionists, howling from their own injuries, or just sitting there, looking as vacant as I felt.
She had to be okay, didn’t she?
She couldn’t not be okay.
I wondered when I was going to be sick. When the feelings permeating my body were going to be acted upon, but it never happened. I didn’t puke. The doctor came to me, showed me to a private room where Thea was hooked up to IVs and all kinds of gear
I didn’t understand. What I did see, however, was that she looked tiny on the bed. She looked so fucking small, that my heart ached.
In the corner, I realized that someone was there.
A man and a woman.
They looked drawn and pale, and it didn’t take much to figure out that they were Thea’s foster parents.
“Hi,” I greeted a little blankly, then I ignored them to grab an armchair, haul it over to her bedside, and take a seat. I clutched her hand, careful to avoid the IV line, then sat there, on a vigil, waiting for her to wake up.
She didn’t.
Not for hours.
The foster parents—the Majors—went, nurses drifted in and out, darkness fell, and suddenly, there was a hand on my arm and I was being dragged into awareness.
I reared back once I was awake, but what I didn’t expect?
The slap to my face.
Not a verbal one, but a physical one.
My head throbbed because I hadn’t prepared myself for the attack. It had ricocheted off the back of the armchair, and because it was the most uncomfortable piece of furniture ever invented, my skull collided with the wooden frame with a dull thunking noise.
Uncertain whether to rub my head or my cheek, I stared up at my attacker and tension filled me. I saw Dad had grabbed a hold of Mom’s arm, and he used that hold on her to draw her against him.
She was a sobbing wreck. My usual pristine mother all verklempt because of what—
A laugh escaped me.
Not because of what Cain had done.
But what I’d done.
Go figure.
“You condemned him.”
The words were spat at me, and she forced herself out of Dad’s arms, looking like some kind of mad woman on meth as she went for me again. But I didn’t stop her. I let her hit me. I let her hands slap me, and her fists pound my chest.
I got it.
Cain was her favorite.
I wasn’t.
Woodenly, I told her, “He hurt Thea.”
“This piece of shit?” she snarled. “You care more for this piece of pussy than you do your own brother? How could you do that to him?” she screamed, and I wasn’t surprised when a nurse bustled in, declaring, “I’m going to have to ask you to leave if you don’t keep things down in here.”
My mom turned wide, enraged eyes on her, but my dad grabbed her once more, and promised, “We’ll keep things down.”
She glared at Mom, but evidently aware there was a higher power of insanity in the ward, she hustled away—I wouldn’t have been surprised if she called security anyway. We probably fucking needed it.
I blinked at my father though, noticing he hadn’t moved to defend me during Mom’s attack, and I jerked my chin up. “You’re the ones who raised a monster. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I’d do it again. Cain deserves to be locked up. He’s a fucking psycho and neither of you ever saw that.”
Turning away from them, I reached for Thea’s hand. I’d heard what had gone down when the EMT informed the hospital of what Thea had endured to prepare the medical team… “He tried to drown her,” I said simply, my fingers clinging to hers. “And you’d, what? Be happy for him to get a detention? To be grounded or suspended? Fuck that.” I glowered at them. “He deserves to be in jail.”
“He’s nearly seventeen,” Mom sobbed. “Dear God, Robert, what if they try him as an adult?” She sobbed some more against his chest, and for the first time in years, I saw my father hug her.
He looked just as dazed as I felt—like I was back to seeing the world through a window with dirty panes. But when he caught me looking at him, his eyes connected with mine, and he nodded.
A single nod.
And I knew, I knew, he agreed with me.
That nod told me I’d done the right thing.
Of course I had. The authorities had to be told. But my mom? The rest of the faculty at Rosemore? I knew they’d keep things under wraps if they could. Would have dealt with it in-house, because that was the kind of place I attended. More secrets and lies made up that building than bricks and mortar.
That it was dark out only just registered, and I realized they must have come directly from the police station to me. With my focus off Dad, I swallowed at the sight of his approval, and I didn’t tense up when Robert murmured, “We can get him a good lawyer.”
“A good lawyer?” she shrieked. “That isn’t enough! Not with what that little slut is saying!”
I blinked. “What little slut?” My arms bunched in outrage. “Thea hasn’t even woken up to say shit,” I snarled. “And she’s not a slut, goddammit!”
Dad shook his head. “Maria, Adam. Maria’s made accusations against Cain,” he rumbled, his gaze focused on Thea.
“What kind of accusations?” I asked, curious despite myself.
“She’s pregnant,” Dad told me. “She says Cain’s the father and that he raped her.”
My mouth curved into a sneer. “Bullshit. Cain didn’t rape her. They’re dating, and if anyone was going to rape anyone, it would be Maria. She’s so into Cain, it’s sickening.”
Dad blinked at that, then shrugged. “That’s what she’s saying. Her father came to us in the police station.” His jaw tensed. “That’s where we’ve been all afternoon.”
I didn’t care where they’d been, and my disinterest showed it.
“Don’t you even care that you’ve ruined his life?” Mom hurled at me, and I turned my focus onto her, wary in case she started hitting me again.
“He ruined his life. He hurt Thea. She did nothing to him. Nothing.”
“That’s a lie! She must have done something—”
I scowled at her, taken aback by the frantic nature of her tone. “How do you accidentally drown someone?” I spat, then I shook my head. “Never mind. You can make up whatever bullshit you want—”
“Bullshit? Your brother’s innocent.”
“Have you been taking too much Valium?” I growled. Then, I tensed up, and muttered, “Look, you don’t have to be here. Go. I don’t want Thea waking up when you’re here.”
She moved faster than I’d ever seen her, faster than even Dad could hold her. One second she was in his embrace, and the next she was beside me, her nails digging into my arms as she stared up at me, fingers digging in just as hard. There was something in her eyes that made me wonder if she was as insane as Cain, and that was confirmed when she spat, “You will make this right, Adam. You will make this better.”
“I don’t have to do shit. I didn’t do anything fucking wrong.” I shrugged off her hold, but her nails dug in with enough force to make me wonder if she could break my skin.
“You do, and you will,” she vowed. “Come with us. We’ve made arrangements.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I snarled. “I don’t care what kind of arrangements you’ve made. I’m staying here.”
Her mouth curved into a bitter sneer, and the mother I knew, the mother I thought I’d known, disappeared in a flash. There was more than the senator standing here, hell, there was a woman who shouldn’t be in public office.
Fuck, maybe being a psycho was in the blood?
Christ, was I as tainted as them?
No.
I refused to believe that. I wasn’t crazy, I wasn’t even mean. I wouldn’t have been able to care for Thea if I was evil, and she wouldn’t have loved me if I was as twisted as my twin. What she saw in him that first day was why she’d turned from Cain—I was hers because I was totally unlike him, and I had to find solace in that.
Maybe this was why Mom had always loved him more than me though. Because they were two peas in a pod—they were too alike, and she loved him for that, loved him for being born in her image.
She confirmed how much of a twisted bitch she was by threatening, “If you want your precious Thea to stay at Rosemore, to stay on the Almanac Team, you’ll do as I say.”
I shot my father a look, but his gaze was on his toes.
He was a party
to this.
Even if he agreed with me about calling the cops, he agreed with whatever my mom had arranged.
“She won a scholarship,” I snarled. “She’s on the Almanac Team because she’s fucking good—”
“And all that can go away with a single phone call.” Her jaw tensed as she glared at Thea, at my woman, like she loathed her, when all Thea had done was go for a fucking swim. “And who the hell do you think was behind some of those scholarships?” she snarled, looking at me like I was a moron.
“You wouldn’t—” My throat dried up. “You couldn’t.” Thea needed this. She needed Rosemore and the Almanac Team to make something of herself. She had promise, more talent than even Cain, but skill meant nothing when you didn’t have the right people at your back.
When no one could shine a light on those abilities.
But I didn’t even need to hear her answer to know she’d wreck all that in a flash.
“I would and I fucking will. You come with me right now, Adam Ramsden, and you clear up the mess you made.”
And that was how my life went down the shitter.
One second, I was at my woman’s side. The next, I had a ring on my finger that belonged to a harpy from hell.
All for Thea.
To protect her, and to make sure she got what she deserved, just like I promised her.
Everything.
ADAM
It surprised me how long we slept. I hadn’t realized I was exhausted, not when I was riding the high from getting to come on vacation with Thea. A part of me hadn’t been sure if she’d agree to let me come at all, so when she had, I was exhilarated.
Her strength, her fortitude, and her determination never ceased to stun the hell out of me. Especially when it came to me.
She never failed to push me away, to keep me at arm’s length, and that she’d done so because of a fucking curse?
As much as it drove me insane, I could see her stubbornness coming to the fore. She was raised believing in that shit, me? I was just pissed that was the reason I’d been fucking other women for three years, trying to get her out of my system and always failing because of some stupid shit her mother had told her.
Above The Surface Page 31
